In Latin America there are very few discount airlines that service the region. Most flights in South America will cost you an arm and a leg, unless you know the ways to minimize your travel costs in the region.

Confession: I hate to fly, and that hatred hasn't diminished one single iota in my years of hauling myself around the world. This abhorrence doesn't stem from anxiety, or from fear of crashing. It's the almost unbearable hassle involved at every step in the process.

In the last few years my husband and I have driven from Panama to Mexico and back a number of times. For anyone who might be considering car travel in this part of the world, here are some observations to make for a better trip.

When traveling, there are many things to plan and to keep in mind, money being one of the most important. With a little preparation and planning, you can relieve much of the stress involved. Colleen Murphy considers several options for managing one's liquidity overseas.

The concept of Culture Shock is nothing new. We've all heard the term, and perhaps even experienced its symptoms. No doubt, for hundreds of years humans have been subject to the phenomenon as they explored the globe and encountered new peoples. Imagine how Alexander the Great felt upon reaching India, Marco Polo's reaction when he arrived in China, or Sir Walter Raleigh's experience with the Native Americans when he disembarked at what is now North Carolina.

For all those who want to explore the world on a severely limited budget... There is a relatively new way to visit a country and get to know the culture through immersion - without having to spend money. It allows you to see more of a country than most tourists ever dream possible. It's called "couchsurfing," and correspondent Mark Svoboda is here to tell us more about it...

Clearly, the World Wide Web has changed the way we live, and may be considered a blessing and a curse. The blessing is the instant access to immeasurable amounts of information on every imaginable subject at our fingertips. It's mind-boggling. The curse is (among other things) not always being able to access that information, for a variety of reasons. No doubt we've all experienced the exasperation of not finding what we seek online, frustrated after hours of searching. One must know what questions to ask and where to look.

It's a step most people won't take, but for the right individual the life of a permanent traveller (or "PT" for short) can be one of excitement, richness and variety. Ian Oliver is one such person. Currently based in Eastern Europe, he picked up stakes some time ago to live life as a citizen of the world. Perhaps this is something for you as well. Or perhaps not. Either way, useful lessons follow that are relevant to our ongoing internationalization conversation - straight from the grizzled horse's mouth.